LONDON, Aug. 14 — Wildfires swept across parts of Europe on Friday as intense heat and dry weather fuelled blazes from Croatia and France to Germany and Belgium, forcing thousands of people to evacuate and stretching emergency services.
In Croatia, a massive wildfire swept through wooded and residential areas around the tourist town of Omis overnight. A body has been found at the site of the incident, and at least 40 people were injured, according to local police on Friday.
The fire broke out on Thursday evening and quickly spread.Around 1,000 people were evacuated from the affected areas. In southwestern France, a wildfire that began on Thursday had burned about 1,100 hectares and forced more than 500 people from their homes, local authorities said.
France was also grappling with a fresh heatwave, with 83 departments under an orange heat alert on Friday and 57 facing a high wildfire risk. In Spain, a blaze in the southern province of Huelva has burned for more than a week and remained out of control.
Another fire in the northeastern province of Huesca flared up repeatedly between Thursday night and early Friday. A wildfire in western Germany forced around 1,800 people to evacuate from home overnight, officials said on Friday.
Helicopters and army equipment were deployed to help battle the fires, with witnesses describing an “alarming feeling” and “ash falling from the sky.”
Britain was also battling major fires in the West Midlands, where 19 homes were destroyed and another 18 damaged in Stourbridge, according to local fire officials.
The country recorded its hottest day of the year so far on Thursday, with a provisional temperature of 38.1 degrees Celsius in southern England.
In eastern Belgium, a wildfire on Friday prompted authorities to activate a provincial emergency plan as the country endured intense summer heat.
Belgium’s Royal Meteorological Institute maintained an orange heat warning on Friday. In Serbia, 25 open-space fires were active across the country on Friday, the Serbian government said, with four locations facing particularly serious blazes.
A fire in the Deliblato Sands had spread across more than 2,500 hectares. The Serbian government warned that stronger winds, prolonged dry conditions and parched vegetation could further increase the risk of fires breaking out and spreading rapidly.
The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre forecast “very extreme” fire danger across a large swathe of central and eastern Europe between Aug. 13 and 19, stretching from Germany and the Alpine region through Poland and into the Balkans.
Very extreme conditions were also forecast in pockets of southern Britain, Ireland, northern France and southern Sweden, while extreme fire danger was expected across parts of France and the wider Iberian Peninsula.
Emergency services across Europe remained on alert as the heatwave persisted, with authorities urging residents in threatened areas to follow evacuation orders and take precautions against further fires. (Namibia Daily News / Xinhua)
